Things you must do to get the story right

This morning I'm up at dark thirty to head to Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster back in 1986. It is said to be radiated for the the next 25K years, but somehow nature is making a return in it's own special way, I'm going there today to witness it firsthand and to write about it.

More to come...

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

How often should you publish?

Another way of asking this question is, how often should I self publish and how often should I publish in the tradtional manner? First you need to understand a profound distinction between the two methods.

When you self publish or indie publish, you are creating an asset that will deliver a certain amount of money for you, year in and year out. This asset is pure passive income. However, the asset will require a specific amount of money to be initially invested for editing, art, onversions, etc. But once the investment is paid for with monthly royalty payments, you will earn pure profit day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. In theory, that is.

When you traditionally publish, you are relinquishing your copyrights to another entity in exchage for an upfront advance and/or a sizeable royalty percentage. What this means is, in exchange for upfront cash, you give up the rights to your property and hand them off to another owner who more than likely, will never return them to you (I've had some luck getting my rights back, and made tens of thousands in the process, and no luck with other books. The last email I sent to one of my publishers along with a CC to my agent, went entirely ignored. Or what do the call it these PC days? Iwas ghosted).

While I believe that indie publishing is a far better alternative in the long run (Just ask Paul McCartney), traditional publishing has better short term benefits. That is, you not only get money for you book, they incur the responsibility and expense of the publishing process. While you will be expected to do a lot of your own promotion, you are more or less along for thr ride. Traditional publishing also results in trade and glossy magazine reviews, plus multi media attention, like I'm enjoying now with The Girl Who Wasn't There which will be published traditionally in Fall, 2020.

Traditional publishing also offers another benefit. Validation. Most authors crave that validation. I do too which is why I traditionally publish around one book per year. In 2020, I will publish 2 books, which is unusual.

Will I eventually stick to one method of publishing?

I don't belive in just one method of publishing. I'm not a traditional or indie absolutist. I go for the hybrid model of doing both, But if you belive in one system go for it and stick to it.. Oh and how many books should you publish in 2019 and beyond?

As many as you can write.

(Writing this stuff on the run so I apologize for any typos. Currently in Odessa about to board the night train to 

Your Comfort Zone

What's your comfort zone?

You wake up at a certain time, day in and day out after having been to bed the night before at the same time night in and night out. You eat the same thing for breakfast, use the bathroom at the exected tiime, maybe exercise, shower up, dress, head to work, come home, Netflix, bed. Rince, repeat ... until the day you don't wake up. Unless of course, you get hit by a bus. Metaphorically speaking. Oh the drama.

No one's more guilty of adhering to the daily scheduled comfort zone than I am. I need it as a writer who's required to put out a certain word count everyday. It's all about the content.

But there are times where the comfort zone has to turn into the uncomfort zone. Times when there's no coffee, no hot water, no sleep, no decent food, no TV and for God's sakes, no internet. You eat somel eafy greens or you do something really stupid like brush your teeth with tap water or choose to use ice cubes in your your Coke and you end up you spending some quality one on one time with a fly infested roadside toilet. Don't forget to bring your own TP. But you can always get a Coke. No matter where you go in the world there's Coke and Pepsi. Talk about the comforts of home.

Some people need the seadside vacation. Some people go to Paris only to shop in the same stores they shop in back home. Nothing life changing in that. But who am I to knock it?

I'm presently in the uncomfort zone pounding out this blog awaiting what I hope is a decent cup of coffee. I have entirely zero expectations.

I love it. My writing will too.

www.vincentzandri.com

Hybrid Publishing vs the Hybrid Author

Just another quick post since I'm writing this with one hand and packing my back pack with another for a five hour drive to a place called Tulcea. Maybe you've been there. But I wanted to address a sensitive subject that, because of my more than 20 years in the publishing business, I feel need be addressed.

This morning I recived an article via email written by a person who runs what she calls a "hybrid publishing" company.  In short, an author pays the hybrid company to publish his or her book..

Don't do it. Don't ever pay someone or some company to publish anything. By all means pay an editor to make your manuscript perfect, and if you're publishing independently, pay both the editor and a great cover designer for their invaluable services, but never pay a so called hybrid publisher to do this. It is vanity publishing, plain and simple.

The term hybrid has been hijacked by vanity press in order to make them seem more legit. They are not legit. They are bottom feeders.

A "hybrid author" is one who publishes both traditionally and independently, as I do. That's the true meaning of the term.

So take heed and do not shell out hard earned cash for a hybrid publisher. They will tell you your manuscript is terrific when in fact they don't care. They probably won't even read it.

The vanity/hybrid press takes advantage of your emotions, your desire to see your own book in print. They are a scam. They just want your money and your soul.

www.vincentzandri.com

   

So what are you gonna write about?

So what are you gonna write about?

That's the question I almost always get when I tell people I'm here in a place like Romania and destinations beyond to gather research for a new novel. In this case, probably a Chase Baker thriller. I always answer them the same way.

"I haven't got a clue."

Then comes the scrunching of the forheard and the squinting of the eyes.

"How can you not know what you're gonna write about?"

That's when I really freak them out by saying, "I just write in the dark."

Now the brow scrunching and eye squinting is followed by a shake of the head and a confused grin.

"How do you see the words on the page in the dark?"

No one actualy asks this but I know it's what they're thinking. So before they can get another word out, I just tell them the truth. That I usually come up with a working title and a general plot concept and start writing. Amost always, the words flow through me like electricity through wires.

In other words, I'm not a writer so much as a conduit. Now how weird but cool is that?

www.vincentzandri.com 

Back in the frying pan

Just a short one today. It's travel day and I'm learning the ins and outs of ny new tablet. Or like my friend Mary says. You need to embrace technology. I guess I miss typewriters.

Drinking an overpriced beer while chewing on a grilled cheese sandwich. But I'm off to distant regions once more. This time, the old Soviet Block. Arrive Bucharest and slowly make my way up past the Black Sea and lovely scenic Chernobyl.

Life couldn't be sweeter.

Look for more posts and vids.

See yah in Bucharest.

Should Book Royalties be Paid in Bitcoin?

Or said better, should authors have the option of being paid in Bitcoin, and/or the cryptocurrency of their choice?

That rather provocative question aside, I want to let you in on something interesting that happened to me yesterday while signing books at the Albany Book Festival. It was one of those mega book signing affairs where authors stand shoulder to shoulder in desperate attempt to sell even one of their traditionally or self-published titles. I actually gave away more books than I sold because my philosophy is thus: Grab a reader now with a free cookie so that later on she decides to become a regular customer who buys all my baked goods hot out of the oven (you see what I did there with the bakery metaphor, ha-ha).

As everyone knows, I'm not a big fan of traditional book signings or conferences in the 21st century. I believe that in the digital age, one's time is better off writing and publicizing on a macro global level, not on a scale so micro that you're practically begging the nerd standing in front of your table picking his nose to please, please, please by your new book. I guess the good thing about conferences, festivals, and signings is meeting like-minded authors and readers, but even that's over rated since most authors are a tad jealous of other authors apparent successes. Sorry, but it's the truth. 

But one thing these events do offer authors like me is the opportunity to ponder the state of writing and the writing life. Simply put, I don't know how most writers make it financially. So many of them have this look of desperation on their faces that you can almost feel the emptiness in their souls and their bank accounts. The sad fact is that even if you nail a $100K book advance, you're probably going to end up broke.

You pay the agent his 15%, you're down to $85K before you even get your first check. You pay Uncle Sam, you're down to around $65K (if we end up with one of the left wing candidates for President, that number will be more like $55-60K). You'll have to live on this for upwards of two years, which will almost certainly leave you in the red, even if you live cheaply in a cheap part of the world. If you work a day job, none of this applies of course. But I'm coming at you from the POV of a fiction writing maximalist, which I happen to be.

So how can we improve our financial lot in life as authors?

One way is to be offered the opportunity to convert our fiat-based advances and royalties to a digital currency of choice, mine being Bitcoin. Fiat currency loses a significant percentage of its value on an annual basis, while Bitcoin, despite is enormous volatility, has no choice but to increase in value over both the short and long term. We can always print more money, but Bitcoin, as a store of value, is entirely limited. In fact, there's only so much to go around. Never has the law of supply and demand been so glaringly applicable.

I performed a little experiment yesterday at the signing. I wanted to see how much money I could make while performing maybe a three or four simple Bitcoin trades over my smartphone via Robinhood. By the end of the morning, I'd made around $150. Add to this some book sales and in the few hours I stood there looking like an idiot, I made around $225. Not a bad take home for a few hours work.

But the point here, is not that you should become a day trader while writing your novels. The point is that while the precious few dollars you do manage to earn as an author will always lose their already paltry value, Bitcoin can only rise in value. Sure, you can put some of your fiat currency into a Vanguard account. But you need to be earning at least $5-6K per month for that to be worth it (in other words, deposits less than a $1K per month don't really grow all that much). But even just a small Bitcoin account in which you dollar cost average invest even $50 per week can, in the long run, earn you potentially hundreds of thousands, if not millions (yup, I just wrote the M word).

Don't believe me? Shaking your head? Asking yourself What's Vin smoking?  Just look to one of the many pro athletes who are now attempting to sign Bitcoin based contracts. Check out Bitcoin guru Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano's recent Tweet:

     

Pomp ✔ @APompliano

NFL Quarterback @MattBarkley tried to get the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals to each pay his contracts in Bitcoin.

Neither would do it.

Matt is just one of many Bitcoiners that are playing in the NFL on Sundays

1,840

12:07 PM - May 14, 2019

 

 

So while pro owners, publishers, and aggregate publishes like Amazon KDP might not be ready to disperse at least a portion of our royalties in digital currency at this time, I believe that sooner than later, it will become a reality. Certainly, we as individuals can convert a portion of our payments on our own, which is precisely what I do (I also invest in traditional products like gold, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc). 

 

As authors in a world where words are rapidly becoming democratized and cheapened, we need to come up with more and more innovative ways to make a buck. Standing at a book signing along with dozens of other authors trying to sell one or two books is most definitely not the answer. Embrace the enormous possibilities of promoting yourself on a global scale, and increase your fiat currency while investing in at least some digital currency while it's still relatively cheap. Your pocket book will thank you in the end. 

 

NOTE: The author actually lost $7.00 in Bitcoin value while writing this blog. But his overall gains for the past 24 hours are $175.84

 

Grab Primary Termination while it's still hot!

 

 

 WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM